Produce a fiery scene

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Tips & Tutorials, by Mark White

April 10, 2017

Create a burning effect in no time at all!

1. Transform and warp

On a new layer, grab the Pen tool (P) and draw a path. Go to Filter>Render>Flame and choose the style that you would like. Click OK. Cmd/Ctrl+click your layer preview and Cmd/Ctrl+T to transform your flame, then warp it into position.

3. Make adjustments

Adjusting your picture can really add realism; use Gradient maps to unify the colours of the fire and the subject, and merge everything together (Cmd/Ctrl+Alt/Opt+Shift+E) before using Camera Raw to sharpen everything up, and increase the clarity.

4. Distort a little

Blurs are extremely important too; Path blur can help to redirect the flames, and Gaussian Blur is useful for adding a little soft focus to the image. Creating a fiery composition couldn’t be done without filters – not just to generate the flames. While Camera Raw can handle bigger adjustments, a nice touch is to slightly distort the picture to add an extra feeling of heat. Go to Filter>Distort>Ripple and choose 50%.